Conflict of Interest Policy


Note: This version 1 is applicable since 15/09/2017. This version 1 was approved by the Board of Directors on 15/09/2017. It was approved by the General Assembly on 15/12/2017. Previous version.

We are publishing research-based articles on climate that are both of high quality and accessible to a broad audience. To ensure that our peer review process helps us consistently and effectively work towards this goal, it is very important that our reviewers, editors and jury members be able to express an independent and unbiased opinion on authors’ works.

This Conflict of Interest Policy describes what we consider to be conflicts of interests and how we shall prevent them.

What is a potential conflict of interest?

  1. An editor, reviewer or jury member is in conflict of interest with the author(s) of a contribution if he/she can not execute his/her role in a wholly independent and unbiased manner, and thereby might bias (positively or negatively) the outcome.
  2. In compliance with the standards in climate science, we consider that the following types of relationships between the two parties represent potential conflicts of interest:
    • Are relatives or close friends (including but not limited to brothers, sisters, parents, currently are or have been married, have been school friends);
    • Have been in a relation of supervision one by the other in the past 4 years;
    • Have collaborated together, have shared office or department/work unit within the past 4 years.
  3. In addition, we consider as a conflict of interest any situation where the editor, reviewer or jury member is unable to give unbiased consideration to a contribution either because of the race, ethnic origin, religious belief, political philosophy, citizenship or gender of the author(s), or because the political, financial or religious interests of the editor, reviewer or jury members are at stake in the contribution.

Preventing conflicts of interests in the peer review of manuscripts

  1. On submission of a manuscript, author(s) can propose names of individuals (Climanosco members or not) who are in potential conflict of interest with them or their work. These individuals will not be considered when choosing the editor and the science and accessibility reviewers.
  2. After acceptance of a manuscript, Climanosco’s team will select an editor with appropriate scientific expertise who is not identified by the author(s) as in potential conflict of interest.
  3. To accept the responsibility of the manuscript, the editor must be able to attest that she/he can offer an unbiased opinion on the manuscript, free of potential conflict of interest in the sense written above.
  4. The editor then selects the required number of science reviewers from a randomized list of registered climate scientists with appropriate expertise who are not identified by the author(s) as in potential conflict of interest.
  5. To accept the review of the manuscript, the science reviewer must be able to attest that she/he can offer an unbiased opinion on the manuscript, free of potential conflict of interest in the sense written above.
  6. Similarly, the editor selects two accessibility reviewers from a randomized list of Climanosco members who are not climate scientists and who are not identified by the author(s) as in potential conflict of interest. Priority is given to members who have subject area(s) and geographical sector(s) of interest matching that of the manuscript.
  7. To accept the review of the manuscript, the accessibility reviewer must be able to attest that she/he can offer an unbiased opinion on the manuscript, free of conflict of interest in the sense written above.

Preventing conflicts of interests in the attribution of awards

  1. Before an award competition, the board of directors forms a jury composed of an equal number of Climanosco members who are climate scientists and not. The jury then ranks the contributions submitted to the competition under the supervision of the board of directors.
  2. Members of the jury shall evaluate if they find themselves in potential conflict of interest in the sense written above with any of the contributions of the competition. It is their responsibility to disclose potential conflicts of interests they might have and refrain from voting on the concerned contribution. In cases where this is not possible for statistical reasons, the sensitivity of the resulting ranking to this particular vote will be estimated and the ranking may be corrected as necessary.

Penalties

  1. It is the responsibility of each member to comply with this Conflict of Interest Policy and to report to Climanosco any breaches to it they might be aware of.
  2. Members who are found in breach with this Conflict of Interest Policy may see their rights to fulfill related roles be restricted for a period of time, or in more severe cases their membership with Climanosco may be terminated by the board of directors.

If you encounter any problem or need any clarification contact the team at:

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https://www.climanosco.org/rule/conflict-of-interest-policy-v-1/